As promised, the divorce battle is taking a nasty turn

That didn’t take long: hours after she filed for divorce from Olivier Martinez, and he filed his own petition looking to annul hers, Halle Berry filed once more, this time using their real names. She’s also started trashing her future ex in the press.

People Magazine, a publication that’s always been camp Berry, offers an inside look at what promises to be a very bitter divorce battle, perhaps even more bitter than the custody war Halle waged against her other ex, model Gabriel Aubry.

Martinez was violent, easily intimidated

The narrative that’s starting to shape up is that, though married for only 2 years, Halle became convinced early on in the marriage that they weren’t a good fit. The blame is all Martinez’s, because he couldn’t handle with a woman who was stronger, more powerful and more influential than he was.

Making matters even worse is the fact that he was also unpredictable and violent, and had a temper that he could simply not control.

“Oliver comes from a world where he was easily intimidated by her ability to work and that she was the breadwinner. He was emasculated by her beauty and her power, and his temper could erupt. He was never physically abusive towards her,” a source tells the publication. “He was very possessive in a very kind of caveman way but was never abusive to her or the family… He had an explosive temper in a way that was profoundly frightening. You never knew when he would explode.”

The same insider adds that Martinez has “definite anger management issues,” as shown during his many altercations with the paparazzi or that time he beat Aubry to a bloody pulp during a custody exchange that, at the time, didn’t even concern him.

Olivier Martinez is afraid

While Berry controls the story through the media, celebrity pundits believe that Martinez is gearing up for the fight that he knows will come.

He and the Oscar-winner have an iron-clad prenup, so there’s no chance he will get a share of her money in the divorce. They also have a son together, Maceo, and if the previous custody fight (for Nahla, the daughter Berry has with Aubry) is any indication, Halle will want to limit his time with the child as much as possible.

One way to do that is by discrediting him in the press by leaking stories like the one above, about his temper and his violent tendencies, to show that he’s not a fit parent.

Berry has played this game before with Aubry and it cost him many jobs and money. Rumor has it that Martinez is afraid the same will happen to him.